Thursday, August 21, 2008

August 21st from Giorgio

Friends of the Buckeye Bullet:This is the third of a series of daily reports describing the progress of the Buckeye Bullet 2. The BB2 is a hydrogen fuel cell land speed vehicle designed to break the speed record for electric vehicles at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. It is designed and built by Ohio State University students out of the Center for Automotive Research in Columbus, Ohio. More details may be found at:

August 20th – electrical glitchesThe new emergency power off switch, required by SCTA rules (and previously untested at TRC) caused a few connection problems that resulted in two aborted runs. It appeared that vibration caused the push-button switch to make inadvertent contact during the runs.Sounds simple, but it took a while to realize where the problem was, because the blessed switch was always in the proper position when the vehicle stopped.Once the problem was diagnosed a different switch was installed.The Bullet went back to the line, but there was not enough time left in the day to run before the 7pm cutoff time. The Bullet was 5th in line at the end of the day.

August 21st – another run!After the 7-8:30 am record runs (for vehicles that qualified for a record the previous day), the line started moving again, with a few interruptions caused by vehicles spin-outs. Eventually, the Bullet came to the start line and headed out for a shake-down run. The short run (a total of 3 miles or so) saw Roger shift through 3rd gear, and saw the Ballard fuel cells deliver more power than ever (550 kW), with the vehicle reaching 224 mph, equaling last October’s top speed. Roger also tested the parachutes , and confirmed that all systems are fully functional.As I type, the vehicle has just returned from refueling, and some changes in the code are being made to change the stoichiometry to reduce the amount of excess heliox used during a run. Thanks the internet connection provided by OSC, Ballard was able to send new code directly to the Salt. Later this afternoon Roger will be given the green flag to go five miles or more, and reach speeds in excess of 250 miles.All is well on the Salt!Two photos attached. Stay tuned for another update tomorrow. I will be joining the team later today.

Buckeye Bullet

The student run team is based out of the Center for Automotive Research at The Ohio State University. Currently the team is in the process of designing a brand new land speed vehicle. This new vehicle branded the Buckeye Bullet 3 is anticipated to be significantly faster than previous cars. In the summer of 2010, the team built a battery powered land speed streamliner (BB2.5), that broke the previous world record held by the Buckeye Bullet 1. Each of the vehicles are run on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.